PLANNING : AUDIENCE QUESTION RESULTS

From my Audience Questionnaire, the results show more males (57.1%) than females (42.9%) took this survey and the majority where under the age of 35 (71.4%). 

The most surprising results I have found is that the majority chose Talk Shows (50%) to be the most influential platform to suede there opinion. The platform that scored the lowest is News articles (14.3%), this question shows a clear divide between social media and the old fashioned newspapers. I will use this information to further extend my social media platforms to engross the majority into my short. 

The results below intrigued me as a unique story line received the most results (50%) and the setting got (0%). This will make me think about our story line to make it engaging as possible such as including twits or leaving my short on a cliff hanger?
The setting having no answers shows its the least important to worry about even though it is crucial within a short, it is still the least effective towards my audiences. 

PLANNING : ADVANCED PRODUCTION INITIAL DEVELOPMENT

We used Canva to brain storm our ideas onto a an A3 format which is clear and simple to use. We will keep referring back to the mind map whilst creating our own piece, this will make sure we are always keeping on the correct tracks , For example reminding ourselves what a thriller should contain. 

We chose our short film to be set in the current year, this is because it is more relateable for audience members and for us it is easier to understand and so no mistakes for mad. Props could be a huge issues if we film in a different era to make sure we had the correct setting, atmosphere and clothing in that year. 

We also had many different films and documentaries that provided inspiration. Most of the examples involve a plot line that uses a stalker. We are thinking we are going to do the same as it creates huge suspension and anticipation which a thriller film contains. 

For the protagonist, who is at the moment planning to be the stalker. We are going to present him to look very scruffy and not well kept, we feel this adds to the sense of tension due to unpleasant features. 

We also decided to create a short film of a thriller. We decided this as we all love watching thriller because it excites us and would love to create our own. Using the plot that we believe will especially draw the audiences. 

We have now decided the plot of our short film. We're making the protagonists a stalker, but we are slowly revealing this throughout the short. This will create suspense and ambiguity which reflects the genre of the film; a thriller. He is the stalker of his long life best friend, this creates realism and personally I believe this makes the film to be more believable therefore more frighting. 

We have decided Props on our up to date ideas to include a Mac Book this is a current prop which reflects on the set era, we will use this for a Face time call. We have also kept the black hoodies and joggers, this is a classic thriller prop which conveys darkness and eeriness. 

We have also chosen a title, 'Happy Life' this is ironic as throughout the film he is very depressed and we plan to use the song 'If you're happy and you know clap your hands.' We intend to use this song as it is a very familiar song and adding this to the protagonists looking dead eyed into the mirror, staring at himself creates an eerie feel. 

Updated Version

We have completely changed our final Short Film idea. We have now chosen to do a supernatural based film. Our current plot, follows a young teenage girl who wakes up seeing her family portrait in the background everyday. She then notices people are disappearing one by one from the image. 

However, we have included a supernatural element into this, we have used inspiration from many films such as 'Back To The Future'. 

We are planning to include many enigmas codes. Engimas Codes to entice the audience in and help move the the narrative on. For examples; a black silhouette of a man who is watching her sleep, this man could be her father. Another element, is when a the teenage girl is reading a book then a man comes up close behind her and whispers "Hello, Alice" making her jump up not looking behind and locking her door, shots of her panting and scared for her life, this will create suspense and ambiguity.   

RESEARCH: CODES AND CONVENTIONS

RESEARCH : BAFTA GURU - SHORT FILMS

RESEARCH : SUNDANCE SHORT FILM 2019

RESEARCH : DIFFERENT TYPES OF SHORT FILMS

RESEARCH / PLANNING : AUDIENCE QUESTIONNAIRE

I designed and distributed an individual audience questionnaire to investigate my target audience's preferences about short films it tailored to our own up coming short film production. Questions that were asked, For example 'What do you think makes an effective short film?' We will collate the answers and use this for our planning when thinking about our context of the short film, to create the most effective film.

I made this through Google forms, I chose this platform as it presents the data both in various formats displaying both qualitative and quantitative data. The use of qualitative data is hugely beneficial as it provides in depth answers rather than a Yes or No answer. Google Forms also is very useful as it is accessible to gather and collate the data that I can use for analysis. My aim when publishing this questionnaire was for further research, this will enhance my planning for my upcoming short film and allow me extend my planning for the type of Film.

RESEARCH : DON'T LOOK NOW

Don't Look Now was voted the best thriller; even though this is an older piece in 1973, the cinematography and screenplay was outstanding. This opening will be useful to help prepare and give editing techniques and cinematography to use. 

The opening slowly starts with the children playing outside whilst the parents are inside leisurely relaxing. The setting has a quick turn around when the young girl down in the back garden pond in her red jacket. Throughout the opening scene the directors use motivated edits. These edits can imply that the parents neglect their children and they are the cause of the incident. One motivated edit that stood out to me was when the young girl was wearing the red coat and drowning in the pond, the parents inside spilled red ink that spread out on a photo he was examining. The colour red suggests death, panic and danger, and this cause him to run outside as he got a eerie inkling. From this, it can be showed to have an supernatural suspension.  

The film cuts between Laura and John and between close ups of the slides which can be used as actual representation of reality. Whilst John observes the slides Laura observes the frozen lake which foreshadows the later death. As John looks at the slides this can be interpreted the fabricated representation of space, this establishes the film's investigation of the gap between perception and reality.  Perception in this opening can be what we see may not represent what is actually there,the photograph. The frozen lake can show that there is only partly represented by what we see.

This concept of representation and reality can be a useful contrast to go in depth within my up-coming short film. It will hugely attract audiences as it isn't common within short films and this will stand out.    

RESEARCH: SHORT FILM ANALYSIS - BLACK HOLE

RESEARCH: EXPLORING SHORT FILM MAKERS

RESEARCH: MARKETING - A QUIET PLACE

A Quite Place Collage 

RESEARCH: UNDERSTANDING MARKETING AND DISTRIBUTION

On the film Distributions website called 'The film space', I watched a presentation by Kezia Williams and Chris Besseling, they are head theatrical distribution at Pathe. Within the presentation they explain what the film distributor has to decide on how they are going to promote and present their new movie to engage the audience. They also need to evaluate how their movie will differ from others that are being released around the same time.

  

Throughout the presentation they discussed the key things need for the marketing and distribution of a movie, this included the USP (Unique Selling Points). There are many key elements that distributors have to think about who stars in the film and what were their most recent films, where was it made, is it based on a well-known book, are there innovative special effects who is the director and what were his/her most recent films, is it a sequel to an earlier hit?

Another key aspect is what hooks the audience. Sub-topics may include visual campaigns, for example: posters, trailers and online clips. Visual campaigns are critical as it is an effective way to help readers to get a lot of information easily. People also are intrigued by visual content as it catches their attention rather than plain text.  

Genre is also a key aspect of marketing as it is shared between the audience ad the film industry, For example a company is marketing a horror film the audience would expect scenes in the woods and isolated houses ect. 

Characters can also be used to engage a certain group of audience. Young characters may only be used to entice the to younger audience, for example Stranger Things have only casted young children and their main stream audience is young teenagers. The audience like well know actors such as Daniel Radcliffe in Harry Potter, this is a clever way to keep the old existing audiences and this is also linked with trilogy movies. 

RESEARCH: SCOOP.IT - SHORT FILM

Scoop.It - Short Film

This Scoop.It shows how popular short films are right now. How easy they are to get out and into the public eye. This is done though YouTube, as it is free and it is very popular on their. There has also been massively popular short films that have been oscar nominated. 

On my scoop.it account, I have linked many posts within my Short Film topic, I have also written detailed analysis on each posts. This hugely helps my research when looking into different examples and evaluating how Short films are presented and what makes a short films engaging. 

This is a link to my Scoop.it account: https://www.scoop.it/topic/short-films-by-georgie-clements-7

RESEARCH: SHORT FILM ANALYSIS - POST IT LOVE

Post.it Love Analyses from GeorgieClements

RESEARCH : WHAT ARE THE FILMS USP?

RESEARCH : WHO ARE THE TARGET AUDIENCE?

RESEARCH: SMALL FILM FESTIVALS

RESEARCH / PLANNING: SHORT FILM ADVICE